Category: *- Features

Story and photos by Mary Jane Farmer, First published in The Paris News, Jan. 7, 2018, editon) There were several common characteristics among those who sang in Tuesday night’s Baraoke, aka karaoke with Barry Diamond as host, at The River Bar & Grill in Grant. Those would be respect, support, and commitment. Karaoke is the […]

Feature story and photos by Axton Deary Sherman, Texas — On Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017, the Jared Mitchell Band opened for headliner and Grammy Award Winner Rick Trevino at 903 Brewery. Overall, the night was a large success, and even a bigger night for the Jared Mitchell Band. The Jared Mitchell Band opened with an […]

Short report and photos by Mary Jane Farmer You pick — Which is this year’s Toyota Texas Music Revolution headliner? Friday morning (Jan. 5, 2018), Dallas radio KHYI, 95.3 The Range announced its bigger name musicians for this 22nd TMR, now TTMR since Toyota became the major sponsor in 2016. And again this year, it’s […]

Short story and photos by Mary Jane Farmer For Turnpike Troubadours photos, click here For Charley Crockett photos, click here Now in their 10th year together, the Turnpike Troubadours are playing more gigs and playing those gigs farther away from their native Oklahoma than they were even three years ago. They handle fame well, still […]

The Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters is now accept submissions for the 2018 contest. Held each year at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville, Texas, this prestigious contest has long brought songwriters from across the U.S. and worldwide. Each year, as many as 800 songwriters submit 2 songs, which are listened […]

The MJ Blog

Mary Jane Farmer, Texas Nexus, August 2017 It’s a 3-column list I have worked up — “PACK UP” it’s called. It’s what I have to reference and cling to when getting ready to go to all the music festivals in my life. And there’s a bunch! Me and Hippie Van head out. She has clean […]

Because you asked… The Celebrate Austin Music Festival at Zilker Park, circa April 15, 1984, was filled with Austin-based touring acts with generous sprinklings of up-and-comers. A lot of that information is in Rod Kennedy’s book, Music of the Heart, written many years before his 4-14-14 death. It had been a long three-day event, and […]

This was first in Buddy Magazine, August 2016 issue. People ask me a lot — why am I in the music business? OK, I’ll share the secret – it was a guy who got me into all this. While teaching school in El Paso, I met another teacher, a musician, out there and that chance meeting and […]

(I’m sorry, but we got absolutely NO photos of these people.) Ake Pecha — I was told this means “Start fresh, my friend.” It was probably around 1982 when Kerrville Festival Producer Rod Kennedy took a trip to the southeast, where he met a group of travelers from the Scandinavian countries. This was the “International School […]

This took a lot of prayer and thanksgiving for me to write and publish. This was one changing quote in my life… From the movie “Mozart,” this statement by composer Salleri: “Why?… implant the desire (for music)… like a lust in my body? And then deny me the talent?” Early on, I could not figure out myself […]